Overhauled / Uprated Forks

[enzed_viffer]

It all made sense on the way home tonight.

This morning...? Pfffftt... I dunno.

Literally - I really didn't know what to expect, but I expected it to be HUGE. Fantastic. Amazing.

My first ride on my rejuvenated forks, and I was expecting... perfection, I guess.

Where was the Magic Carpet Ride? Why could I feel the bumps like that? Is this what you get for A Whole Lotta Money? What was that strange feeling in the first turn I made?

I thought about it during the day, and felt disappointed, perhaps a little cheated. Then I started to rationalise, which made me feel a little better. The seals were brand new, it was cold this morning so the oil was more viscous, I'd only tested it on a short ride, most of that was motorway, blah blah blahdy blah.

Then I rode home, and suddenly realised something. An epiphany, if you like. The VFR was very composed - it was gliding along with no fuss, no bother, no fidgetyness, and seemingly very little up-and-down movement.

You know those really stupid cars you see, with the chopped springs, no suspension travel, crappy damping, and they're all hoppy over every little undulation in the road? Well, the VFR didn't used to be quite that bad, but that's what it reminded me of, with it's stiffer springs but crap damping and worn out fork internals. Tiring.

Annoyingly jiggly ride.

But not any more.

Then I noticed other things....

That strange corner thingie: it was the bars turning into low speed corners.

And there was nothing much happening apart from cornering.

No lateral movement in the fork tubes meant no interference to the steering from mid-corner ripples. Compliant damping meant less pressure required on the inside bar, almost none in fact.

On with the brakes... less dive. Much less dive.

How can that be? It's the same springs, albeit with the preload now set to where it should be, not backed off to give a softer, less jiggly ride.

Ahhh... it's now all working as it should be. It doesn't feel amazing, because all it's doing is what it's supposed to.

No drama, no fuss, no fireworks, nothing much to notice except what's not there.

It's all so relaxing and pleasant. Almost... boring.

Good suspension is boooorrrrriiiinnnnnng!!! :musik20:

Well... the "CKT Racetech" decals are kinda OK, but the rest? Pfffttt!!

Here was I, excited about my flashed-up new forks, disappointed because there's no excitement. Well, duh...! :laugh:

Tech Stuff

I fitted some uprated springs many moons ago, as that was all I could afford. They're 0.95kg/mm linear rate, as compared to the stock 0.74 progressive rate springs.

CKT refurbished the forks with new seals (I thought I might as well, while it was in the workshop); new bushes (old ones had lost teflon and some of the bushing material); chucked out the old compression piston thingies (yeah, that's a technical term) as the ports were too small, so they didn't cope well with flowing oil when I rode over sharp bumps, and fitted some Racetech Gold Valves. This was mated to a rejigged shim stack so the damping was more betterer; then the whole lot was basted with some shiny new fork oil, presumably made from Swedish baby virgin fur seal whale penguins, and more slippery than Winston Peters. After casting some special arcane and esoteric incantations over the whole lot, they rewrapped it in the crappy bubble wrap I cadged from the furniture folks downstairs, and sent it all back to me quick smart (they had the forks less than 48 hours).

[Rice]

How... encouraging?

I am about to do the same to my forks. And my forks are in the same exact state as yours used to be. .95 RaseTech springs, race-tech oil and the rest is all stock, complete with old stiction-prone bushings, too restrictive valves that cause the bike to be exactly as you have described - low-rider twitchy on the bumpy stuff and too harsh and tiring for the correct preload.

I am sending mine to JD and see if his kung fu is better than mine :musik20:

Guess I shouldn't expect to be swept off my feet by the new and improved forks?

[enzed_viffer]

Guess I shouldn't expect to be swept off my feet by the new and improved forks?

Ideally, I should have ridden my bike to the workshop, but it's over 5 hours ride away, and would've cost me a lot in terms of time and gas. Instead, I posted them (NZ$19, and a couple of days). If I had been there, I could've had everything dialed-in to my weight, riding style, etc., and had the Elka tuned at the same time. As it was, I just gave him as much info as I could.

They're good now, but for what it all cost (in the region of NZ$1200), I expected some "WOW!!" factor.

It actually made less of a radical difference than the Elka, but that was partly because I'd already had many months on the proper springs, so it was only the damping and extra play in the forks that needed fixing.

[Baileyrock]

Congrats on the complaint forks! :musik20:

:laugh:

[SEBSPEED]

Smooth = fast. Welcome to the club. Give yourself a nice long ride to realize the true potential!

[Guest]

This was mated to a rejigged shim stack so the damping was more betterer; then the whole lot was basted with some shiny new fork oil, presumably made from Swedish baby virgin fur seal whale penguins, and more slippery than Winston Peters.

Er, who's Winston Peters? Is he more slippery than, say... Bernie Madoff?

[enzed_viffer]

This was mated to a rejigged shim stack so the damping was more betterer; then the whole lot was basted with some shiny new fork oil, presumably made from Swedish baby virgin fur seal whale penguins, and more slippery than Winston Peters.

Er, who's Winston Peters? Is he more slippery than, say... Bernie Madoff?

Er... sorry. :fing02:

I wrote this for a local biker forum last night, and was too lazy to rewrite it for VFRD.

Winston Peters is a local eel politician, who used to be a lawyer (but still dresses like one). He fell out with the political party (because he wanted to be The Big Cheese) and started his own party, so he could be boss. They did OK to start with, on a platform based mostly on pandering to racist fears, but at last year's election, they ended up with no (zero!) people in parliament. He announced recently he might be returning to politics.

[Guest]

This was mated to a rejigged shim stack so the damping was more betterer; then the whole lot was basted with some shiny new fork oil, presumably made from Swedish baby virgin fur seal whale penguins, and more slippery than Winston Peters.

Er, who's Winston Peters? Is he more slippery than, say... Bernie Madoff?

Er... sorry. :fing02:

I wrote this for a local biker forum last night, and was too lazy to rewrite it for VFRD.

Winston Peters is a local eel politician, who used to be a lawyer (but still dresses like one). He fell out with the political party (because he wanted to be The Big Cheese) and started his own party, so he could be boss. They did OK to start with, on a platform based mostly on pandering to racist fears, but at last year's election, they ended up with no (zero!) people in parliament. He announced recently he might be returning to politics.

I'd laugh, but that sounds scary. Doncha' just love how politicians love spending your money because they know what's best for you better than you do? Winston Peters, Minister for Racing? :laugh: Crikey, mate, discovering international characters through VFRD, fascinating!